14 DAY TRIAL // If you follow the tech world, you probably remember all the fuss ASUS caused with their Transformer Book Duet.
This tablet/laptop hybrid was supposed to be the world’s first dual-booting machine of its kind, capable of switching between Android and Windows in under a few seconds.
But Google and Microsoft didn’t like the idea very much and started pressuring ASUS to drop everything. Which is what eventually happened because the model never made it out into the wild.
Well, Chinese manufacturers never took rules imposed by tech giants like Google and Microsoft too seriously, and shorty after ASUS cancelled its Transformer Book Duet project, Pipo announced its own dual-boot tablet endeavor.
Dual-boot smartphones making a comeback in 2015?
But what about dual-boot smartphones? At some point in the past, Huawei was rumored to be working on one and the device even showed up in a leaked image. Sadly, the product fell off the radar pretty quickly and never came back.
Still in 2015 we might actually see such a device become reality after all. Gizmo China picked up a few images from China’s social website Weibo, which purportedly showcase a dual-boot smartphone with Android 5.0 Lollipop and Windows 10.
The device is called the Wei Yan Sofia and comes with three capacitive buttons at the bottom and pretty sleek bezels.
The handset will sport a 5-inch 1080p display and draw power from Intel’s SoFIA chips (developed in partnership with Rockchip) that were initially said to go into budget Android tablets.
Other specs include 2GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage and 3G/4G connectivity. In the photography department, the phone will enjoy a 13MP/5MP camera combo treatment.
The Wei Yan Sofia could just be a prototype
The images show us a very thin handset with the Windows logo at the bottom. However, we should be taking this information with a big grain of salt.
After all we know what has been the fate of dual-boot devices so far, and the Wei Yan Sofia might end up being just a fantastic concept and nothing more.
Would you be interested in a dual-booting Android 5.0 Lollipop / Windows 10 smartphone?
